Today's edition of the Andalusia Star News in southern Alabama carries a story about significant progress on a project to convert 42.9 miles of out-of-service CSX railway lines in Covington, Coffee and Geneva counties into a recreational trail.

For her 70th birthday nearly four years ago, Dr. Katherine Jeter decided to mark the occasion with an extraordinary physical and philanthropic feat: cycle 70 miles in one day on the Little Miami Scenic Trail in Ohio, and raise $70,000 for charity. We ran a story on her challenge in Rails to Trails magazine, and Jeter ended up surpassing her fundraising goal. And even though she'd only picked up cycling in her late 60s, she'd found her pedaling stride.

A sustained grassroots effort supported by a coalition of local municipalities won funding support for a 44-mile pathway for hikers, bikers and riders of all kinds along a former railway corridor in Mississippi.